Talk:Social market economy

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Contents 1 Request for more specific detail 2 Request for clarification 3 Social market economy in Scandinavia? 4 Role of Christian Democrats 5 Tri-partite talks 6 Social market economy not present any more?

[edit] Request for more specific detail

Just describing the "the model" in broad generalities doesn't tell me much about what a social market economy is. Are there any specific features of, say, the German economy that could be contrasted to the US economy? (192.91.253.52 (talk) 17:49, 12 March 2008 (UTC))

[edit] Request for clarification

"Erhard once told Friedrich Hayek..." - change to I guess Ludwig Erhard, link it and maybe cite it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.162.73.233 (talk) 20:36, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Social market economy in Scandinavia?

The article claims: "The social market economy was the main economic model used in Western and Northern Europe during the Cold War era." This is not true. Even though both the continental "social market economy" and the Scandinavian economic model sometimes are refered to as a third way between laissez-faire capitalism and planned economy, the differencies are substantial. (I disregard from the fact that also the UK according to UN is considered to be part of Northern Europe, because I understand the statement in the article refering to the Scandinavian countries and not the UK.)

During the Cold War era the Scandinavian model showed no trace of the Ordoliberal and Conservative traits that constitutes the "social market economy" of the continent. In Scandinavia the mixed economy was the outcome of Social Democratic pragmatism. This is not only a question of labels.

There where substantial differencies in the set up between the market and the state. A corner stone for the ordoliberal model is an independent Central Bank with monetary stability as it's main goal. In the Scandinavian Cold War era model monetary policies was closely coordinated with fiscal policies and the Central Bank was governed by the government. The pursuit of economic policies from the state was much more active in Scandinavia, in contrast to the continental model in which the task of a strong state is to establish a stable framework and order for free market forces, and the use of active state intervention is restricted to guarantee open competition. In Scandinavia the emphasis during Cold War era was to create conditions of the market that speeded up the modernization of economy and realized large scale gains, often at the sacrifice of open competition and promotion of oligopoly or monopoly structures. The cons of decreased open competition was mastered by increased state control. The cooperation and interaction between the state and large scale private business enterprises was very close, preceding what today is named "triple helix"-cooperation between trade and industry, state authorities and (state) research community. With Sweden, Denmark and Finland joining the European union and included in the common market, the differencies in the set up between state and market between a Scandinavian and Continental model has ceased, but the question here was about the Cold War era.

Also in the fields of welfare policies the differencies was (and still is) substantial. Professor Gøsta Esping-Andersen has distinguished a Social democratic Welfare regime of Scandinavia and a Conservativ Welfare regim of the continental and mediterranean Europe wich differs in their main features (Esping-Andersen, G., The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press 1990).

Anni, user of swedish Wikipedia

[edit] Role of Christian Democrats

It is to strong to say, Christian Democrats invented the social market economy. Instead, they defended the free market elements against Social democrats who hadn't yet broken with communist ideas. Thus, the social market economy is not simply an invention of some intellectuals such as Walter Eucken or Alfred Müller-Armack (whose contribution can't be underestimated, however), it also reflects the result of a political controversy that took place in the early 1950s.

[edit] Tri-partite talks

This paragraph is somewhat misleading, since the state is not involved in any negotiations about price levels or wages. By the way, this would clash with the principles of ordoliberalism. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 137.248.1.11 (talk) 23:35, 26 February 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Social market economy not present any more?

This is a claim, where a citation is definitely needed. In the "Third Way"-article there is a citation of an article by the BBC, where it is said, that Schroeder _tries_ to introduce it. There is no retrospective look at it. Social merket economy itself is basically neoliberalist as well and it looks in place to me. Still, I'm not a specialist for economic topics, so experts will need to handle that. --80.141.116.210 10:20, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

The European Union itself is an SME as are the Nordic countries. Lord Hawk 20:25, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

NO! Some EU countries have a SME, but not all —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.164.238.83 (talk) 12:29, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

This article definitely needs to be re-written, especially when it is introduced as an economic model of Western Europe and Scandinavia. It was me who changed the passage "was the main economic model used in Western and Northern Europe" to "is the main economic model used in Western and Northern Europe" because that is still the dominant policy in Western Europe.

All German parties adhere to a social market economy, the Social Democrats, the Conservatives and the Liberals. The latter's executive committee just released a statement named "For Social Market Economy" ("Für die Soziale Marktwirtschaft") on February 18, 2008. And Angela Merkel also declares social market economy to be the "best and most effective model"[1].

Also, the discussion here is confusing the economic models of Western Europe and the European Union. It is true that the EU enforces a more neoliberal line, but Western Europe's elite still believes in social market economy (even Sarkozy who recently hired two left-leaning economists to model his reforms, Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen). Rocator (talk) 13:31, 24 February 2008 (UTC)